linux graphics card: Dual Head (Twinview etc) a must

[Billy Mays]

i too would like an answer to this but i lean towards ATI.

i play older games in windows (oblivion) and just want something that can run Compiz well and extend my desktop as well as bust out some oblivion caves. i'd like to run 2 1680x1024 monitors.

[bridgman]

oh i forgot to mention, even though I can get an adapter, one of my monitors currently connects via vga, the other DVI.

I guess the first question is whether the motherboard has enough graphics connectors to drive your monitors. If so, it might be worth trying the onboard graphics with the open drivers. Do you know which graphics chip is on the motherboard ?

[miesnerd]

I guess the first question is whether the motherboard has enough graphics connectors to drive your monitors. If so, it might be worth trying the onboard graphics with the open drivers. Do you know which graphics chip is on the motherboard ?

yeah, its an ATI (1250). Either way, ATI's big monitor thing sucks. I really prefer the way nvidia works with xorg.conf and I'm seeing that more and more. So, the quetion is rephrased to "What NVIDIA card should I get for dual monitors". Im currently leaning towards a 9800GT.

[bridgman]

The open drivers use xorg to configure screens, that's why we're suggesting them.

That said, if you're looking for 9800-class 3D then no IGP is going to provide that so an add-in card is the way to go.

[artsci2]

I had some recent success with dual monitors on Ubuntu. I'm using a ATI AIW 2006 series (9600). Putting a 1600x1200 monitor together with a 1680x1050 LCD was a bit problematic but useable. After I replaced the 1600x1200 with another 1680x1050lcd everything fell in place and worked wonderfully.

It all functioned so well that I wnt out and bought an ATI card for my second machine to replace the Nvidia that was there.